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Investors of Cryptocurrency Ignored 3 Straight Attacks 51% on ETC 0 545

Investors of Cryptocurrency Ignored 3 Straight Attacks 51% on ETC

Despite three “51% attacks” in a month, Ethereum Classic’s price has demonstrated strong resilience. Though down a bit for the past month, its persistence may indicate that security is not a top priority for investors rushing to join a bull run in the crypto market.

However, some warn that unless it improves its blockchain and makes it safer, additional attacks on Ethereum Classic could trigger a market sell-off and lead to a collapse of its digital asset.

For a blockchain network’s security, a “51% attack” is pretty much as bad as it gets. That’s when a single entity gains control of a majority of the network’s computing power, allowing it to siphon off extra units of the currency in what’s known as a double-spend.

So it would stand to reason that three successful 51% attacks in a month against the Ethereum Classic blockchain might dent investors’ confidence. But prices for the project’s native ETC token haven’t really taken a hit – a sign traders could be less concerned about security vulnerabilities than a quick profit in fast-moving cryptocurrency markets.

At press time, ethereum classic is trading at $5.06, down about 27% in the past 30 days at the same time bitcoin is off by 15%.

Three 51% Attacks in a Month

For the Ethereum Classic blockchain, 51% attacks have been a threat for a long time. Unlike Ethereum, from which it was hard forked, the Ethereum Classic network is committed to the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm, which is also used by BItcoin. But for large networks like Bitcoin, a 51% attack is prohibitively expensive to do given the enormous amount of computational power required by PoW to successfully do it. Ethereum Classic’s hashrate is much smaller, making it far more vulnerable to 51% attacks.

By press time, the hashrate of Ethereum Classic stood at 1.668 terahash per second, while Bitcoin’s at 117.95 exashes per second, according to BitInfoCharts.

Ethereum Classic is the product of a hard fork after the Ethereum network split in different ways following an infamous hack in 2016. The PoW-based blockchain has been chasing after Ethereum, which now represents the No.2 cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Ethereum is planning on changing its algorithm sometime next year. In a tweet thread Sept. 2, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin argued Ethereum’s planned Proof-of-Stake (PoS) algorithm gives it a “key fundamental” advantage over PoW.

“In PoW, on the other hand, a successful attacker can just attack over and over again, with no possible way to delete their hardware without deleting everyone else’s hardware.”

During the month of August, the Ethereum Classic network suffered not one but three 51% attacks: the first one took place on Aug. 1, the second on Aug. 6 and a third on Aug. 29.

NiceHash, a hashpower broker, acknowledged its platform may have facilitated the recent 51% attacks, in a blog post on Sept. 1, but it also concluded that such attacks cannot be prevented or mitigated in a “truly decentralized proof-of-work solution.”

“The only thing one can do is make the price of an attack higher than the attacker reward,” the post added.

The Ethereum Classic network also suffered a 51% attack in early 2019, which led crypto exchange Coinbase to halt all ETC transactions, withdrawals and deposits at the time.

James Wo, founder of ETC Labs, the leading organization supporting the Ethereum Classic network, told CoinDesk via a spokesperson that his team has been trying to enhance the network’s security in the past year, including expanding the network’s core development team, and partnering with companies such as Chainlink, Swarm and Bloq.

The company announced two new hires on Sept. 3 to ETC’s core development team.

“These developments and partnerships are working to quickly propel the advancement of ETC and ensure a bright future for the network,” Wo said, who added that ETC’s price has held “strong” even with the recent 51% attacks.

Indeed, the attacks have not had any significant impact on its prices, which prompted a question: why would anyone put money in a token when its security is not guaranteed?

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Absconding Directors of South African Crypto Fraud “Africrypt” Agree To Attend Court Hearing Virtually 0 15

After proceeding of trial against infamous Africrypt, it would be for the first time that the main accused will attend court hearing, although virtually. The Court, upon the request of Cajee brothers’ counsels has agreed to offer virtual hearing option and fixed the date of 19th & 20th October, 2021 for recording of their testimonies.

The Courts in every country have been insisted upon by legal experts to utilize innovation and technology for justice system. Litigants everywhere criticize that justice is delayed. Primarily in the Asian and African regions, often Courts are criticized for not being able to decide cases even after 5 to 10 years. Recording of evidence kept linger on because the witness are not available in the country. In the modern countries, usually the Courts have provided for virtual hearings, however, such option was hardly utilized by Asian and African regions.

However, due to pandemic, the courts, which never used virtual hearing option, are now conducting hearings virtually as well. The practice has finally made its way into the justice system of both these regions as well. This very option has recently been utilized in a high profile crypto fraud case of South Africa namely “Africrypt”.

According to the complaints of Africrypt, the firm Africrypt looted their money while the perpetrators fled with millions of dollars. They claimed that a crypto scam of “exit” nature was committed on them.

Meanwhile, when the founders/operators of Africrypt namely Amer and Raees Cajee were there, they said they claimed a hack occurred. But nobody believed and said that they were concocting a false story to hide their crime while the money was taken by them. However, the local authorities soon came to know that both brothers went into hiding. No one knew where they were taking shelter or why they opted to hide if they did not do anything wrong. But their counsels were representing them before the Court and told the Court that Cajee brothers were receiving life threatening warnings. They were threatened by certain people of dire consequences which may involve harming their family members as well. So they went into hiding, claimed their attorneys.

Now an opportunity has been offered by the South African court to Cajee brothers to plead their case virtually. It has been noticed in the press as well that the Cajee brothers have accepted Court’s offer of attending Court’s hearing virtually.

The virtual hearing date was fixed to take place in September. But the date was requested by Cajee brothers’ counsels to be fixed in the month of October for various reasons. The Court has accepted the request of the counsels and has re-fixed the case for 19th October, 2021. On the said date of hearing, it is anticipated that both the main accused with record their testimonies virtually.

60 Crypto Exchanges in South Korea to Shut Down their Services 0 13

This is the week of the deadline for crypto exchanges as well as wallet operators in South Korea to comply with the new regulatory requirements introduced in order to stay open. Up until now, only one exchange has been granted the license for continuing their operations in the country. It is expected that around 60 crypto exchanges will either shut down fully, or cut down on their services. According to the new ‘Act on the Reporting and Use of Special Financial Transaction Information (Special Act)’, all crypto exchanges in South Korea have to register with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in the country and get certification for Information Security Management System (ISMS).

The last day to be able to do is September 24th. Crypto exchanges that are unable to do either of these things will have to cease their operations fully. Local media reported that around 34 exchanges have not been granted ISMS certification, which means they will entirely shut down by the given date. Around 29 crypto exchanges do have ISMS certification, but only one of them has managed to register with the FIU successfully. This is part of the country’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC). On Friday, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) had had their first crypto business review meeting.

Their goal had been to check the report that was submitted by Dunamu Inc. that operates the largest crypto exchange in South Korea named Upbit. The report was accepted by the review committee, which made Upbit the first licensed crypto exchange operator. It was further revealed by the FIU that other than Upbit, there were four other exchanges that had also submitted a report, which included Coinone, Korbit, Korea Digital Exchange (Flybit) and Bithumb. Furthermore, a report was also submitted by Korea Digital Asset (KODA), which is a wallet operator.

The FSC had said back then that since there was only a week left till the deadline, virtual asset providers should file a report right away, if they haven’t already done so. Furthermore, registered crypto exchanges that are interested in offering trading in the Korean won are also required to partner with banks for providing users with accounts verified with their real names. Up until now, banking partnerships have only been secured by the country’s largest exchanges, such as Upbit, Korbit, Coinone and Bithumb. Banks are not willing to partner with smaller exchanges because they are concerned about risks like money laundering.

This means that of the 29 exchanges that have been ISMS-certified, only 25 of them will be crypto-only exchanges in case they register with the FIU successfully. By September 24th, they will have to cease offering trading services in Korean won and should have already notified their clients, as per the rules of the financial regulators. Huobi Korea, Hanbitco, Gdac and Gopax are four companies that said they were still working on securing partnerships with banks by the given deadline. This indicates that out of 63 exchanges, only the leading four will continue to operate normally in the country. 

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